title: Telephone follow-up was more expensive but more efficient than postal in a national stroke registry.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the efficiency and differential costs of telephone- vs. mail-based assessments of outcome in patients registered in a national clinical quality of care registry, the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry (AuSCR).
  
  
  METHODS
  The participants admitted to hospital with stroke or transient ischemic attack were randomly assigned to complete a health questionnaire by mail or telephone interview at 3-6 months postevent. Response rate, researcher burden, and costs of each method were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with the participants in the mail questionnaire arm (n=277; 50% female; mean age: 70 years), those in the telephone arm (n=282; 45% female; mean age: 68 years) required a shorter time to complete the follow-up (mean difference: 24.2 days; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 15.0, 33.5 days). However, the average cost of completing a telephone follow-up was greater (US$20.87 vs. US$13.86) and had a similar overall response to the mail method (absolute difference: 0.57%; 95% CI: -4.8%, 6%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Posthospital stroke outcome data were slower to collect by mail, but the method achieved a similar completion rate and was significantly cheaper to conduct than follow-up telephone interview. Findings are informative for planning outcome data collection in large numbers of patients with acute stroke.
authors.affiliation: Alfred Clinical School, Faculty of Health Sciences, La Trobe University, The Alfred Centre, Commercial Road, Prahran, Melbourne, Australia. N.Lannin@latrobe.edu.au
authors.forename: Natasha A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Lannin
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: Joyce
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Paice
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Price
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Faux
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Levi
authors.forename: Geoffrey
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Donnan
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cadilhac
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003625:Data Collection / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D057194:Intention to Treat Analysis; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D002546:Ischemic Attack, Transient / Q000534:rehabilitation; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D011177:Postal Service / Q000191:economics; D012042:Registries; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013689:Telephone / Q000191:economics; D013997:Time Factors